Ichud Leumi (National Union) and Jewish Home parties will win enough votes for the minimum representation of Knesset Members, with a slight advantage to Ichud Leumi, according to a poll carried out by Tel Aviv University Prof. Camil Fuchs for Haaretz-Dialogue.

If elections were held today, Ichud Leumi would win four seats and Jewish Home three seats. The two factions overcame bickering earlier this week and reached a vote-sharing agreement that will divide among them the ballots that remain after the final tally awards seats according to a specific number of votes.

The survey also revealed that Israel Is Our Home (Yisrael Beiteinu) has slipped ahead of Labor and is headed to be the third largest faction in the next Knesset. If elections were held today, Yisrael Beiteinu would win 15 seats and Labor only 14.

The poll was carried out after it was revealed that the police are investigating Yisrael Beiteinu leader Knesset Member Avigdor Lieberman on suspicion of money laundering. The results indicated that the public thinks the probe is politically motivated to weaken Yisrael Beiteinu.

Shas would win 10 seats, one less than it now holds, according to the survey, and Meretz would remain with five MKs.

The final election results may be dramatically changed by 22 percent of the respondents who said they are undecided, most of them wavering between Labor, Kadima and Likud.

This entry was posted
on Friday, January 30th, 2009 and is filed under news.